ACTUALLY, IT IS ROCKET SCIENCE
Aerospace engineer and surfer Luca Oggiano is applying his scientific skills to the world of surfboard design with impressive results
By Tim Baker
How does an Italian aerospace engineer working at a Norwegian University find himself collaborating with a surfboard business on the Gold Coast?
For Luca Oggiano, it all started when he posted one of his computer simulations of a surfboard moving through water up on YouTube two years ago just to see what sort of interest it might attract. This was a passion project, a diversion from his core business of working with elite cyclists, kayakers, runners and skiers to refine their equipment for optimum performance.
Luca learnt to surf in the generally small, fickle and cold waves of the Mediterranean Sea of his Italian homeland, and had been surfing in the frigid waters of Norway for years, so when he was approached by The Surfboard Warehouse on Queensland’s Gold Coast to collaborate on surfboard design he didn’t need too much convincing.
“The fun part is, there are a lot of myths behind surfboards. We can put a number to the beliefs people have, and quantify feelings that aren’t usually quantifiable,” he says. Luca is a research scientist at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU) and Institute of Energiteknikk (IFE). Through his deep understanding of hydrodynamics, Luca was able to assist the Surfboard Warehouse’s S*Lab Research and Development sector to help improve, hone and develop board design.
Using Computational Fluid Dynamics, his simulations illustrate and quantify lift, drag, speed and buoyancy of a particular surfboard design and how applying force in various ways results in different performance characteristics. In this way he is able to assess a surfboard design and quantify if its particular features are achieving what a shaper, designer or surfer thinks they are.
“There’s a lot of naivety, like this board’s really fast, and so I think the most interesting part is to try and quantify that,” he says. “From the top-level surfers, quite a few of them have their magic stick, but they don’t know why. It’s a pure feeling-based decision and no one is able to quantify it. I’m not sure if these feelings are always right. When they come with a feeling we never ever don’t pay attention, but for the average user I think there is a lot of misconception.”
Luca has a PhD in sports aerodynamics and has worked with the Norwegian Olympic ski team, Olympic kayakers, Adidas and Puma running teams, and Cycling Australia and Tour de France cyclists, so he speaks with some authority. He is also CEO and co-founder of Nabla Flow, a consultancy business specialising in fluid flow analysis. His surfing computer simulations are some of the most sophisticated approaches to surfboard design yet developed. As well as the Surfboard Warehouse, he has worked with Hawaiian master shaper Eric Arakawa, assessing and helping refine his designs.
While he values the role of the traditional hand-shaper, he thinks his work can help surfboard makers improve performance in a range of key areas. “I think there is enormous potential from materials to consistency of shapes of the boards. Fins are an extremely hot topic. I think we’ll see 3D printing fins and boards, but I’m not sure we’ll see something like the thruster again. There’ll be new, more complex shapes popping up, and the advance of wave pools will move everything – like asymmetrical boards, for example, if you’re only going to ride a right in a pool.”
He also foresees huge advances in big wave surfboard design. “Big wave boards, they have problems where simulations can help. Jaws always has extremely strong winds, and we all know how complicated it is to paddle in with a strong offshore with a huge monster behind you,” he says. Reducing chatter, lift and vibration can be achieved with different materials acting as dampeners or shock absorbers, or through improved hydrodynamics.
Luca’s particularly excited about working with two-time world champion Beau Young on his mission of pushing the performance of longboards in big surf. “Beau wants to nose ride a big wave, and that’s a challenge where simulations can help,” he says.
But generating the complex computer simulations that Luca uses is an incredibly time-consuming process. “It took me a really long time to take all my knowledge from other sports, and wave generation, to come up with something that could be useful for surfing. Once that was in place, to generate a new simulation takes a day, then you have to run it and analyse the results.”
But Luca is adamant there will always be a place for hand-shapers and that some of the more mystical elements of surfboard design might never be quantifiable. “I don’t think you’ll ever be able to substitute shapers, but you might be able to get a much more clear indication from this what works,” he says. “Good shaping will always be a product that people would buy and require and I’m quite sure that there is space for that because there is a soul that you will never be able to remove from surfing … There is no harm at all in science for shapers. It’s a very powerful time now, it has to be embraced more and more.”
Luca envisages a platform where any shaper could upload a design to one of his simulations and get immediate feedback on its performance characteristics and refine it accordingly. “In cycling we do it, but with surfing the complexity is enormous,” he says. “It’s always very challenging and scary, but I really like a steep learning curve. We are just starting, at some point it will flatten. It’s very exciting.”
For now, Luca’s happy exploring the cold-water waves of Norway and indulging in a little field research whenever he gets the chance. His current favourite boards are his Tajen and Zephyr hybrid shortboards. “Norway is much better than Italy. It’s slightly colder but with rather uncrowded line-ups and beautiful nature. It can be -5, or -10 degrees (Celsius) and surrounded by snow. Everyone thinks of palm trees and golden beaches, but it’s beautiful to surf with snow.”